Chapter 16

~Ollie~

       After a long time of deciding who was going to go check out the city hall for any possible hints of how to get back home, we finally came with up with a group. Even though it was one not everyone agreed with.

       However, it was the only one that made sense. All the kids had to go a long time without their parents and they didn't want any of their parents to leave again.

       That just left me, Grant, Julian, Noah, Gerard, and Priya.

       But Gerard was very against going and he didn't want Priya to leave him all alone so now, it was me, Grant, Julian, and Noah.

       Shaw was the one who was most against this.

       "I don't get why we're sending the youngest ones out there," Shaw said.

       "If I recall, we're not the youngest because there are a bunch of kids here," Grant pointed out.

       "I meant out of those who are able to go out on their own," Shaw said.

       "There, you said it yourself," Grant said. "We're able to go out on our own."

       Shaw sighed. "You know what I mean, Grant. You four are the youngest ones, not including the kids, and Ollie was already severely injured and you never know if that injury can come back."

       "I feel fine, though," I said. "Energized. The best I've ever felt in a long time if I'm being honest. And look." I slightly pulled up the leg of my pants. "You can't even see a single scar or any hint that I got injured. Besides, someone needs to get to the city hall to figure out what's going on."

       "Yeah, and if Ollie was the first person to notice the weirdness happening before we got transported here and he was the one who woke up in the city hall, then it's best that he goes," Grant said.

       I narrowed my eyes suspiciously at my boyfriend. "Are you blaming me for us being transported here?"

       "Oh, definitely," Grant said. "It's all your fault that a lot of us were randomly put in this alternate universe of Spruceworth with zombies and ghosts and demons."

       "Demons?" I asked. "I don't remember seeing any demons."

       "I wouldn't be surprised if we come across demons," Grant said. "Or werewolves. Or vampires. Or any other typical Halloween beings."

       "That would actually be kind of cool," I said.

       "Only you would think that," Grant said.

       "No, I'm pretty sure you would want to see one of those too," I said.

       "...Yeah, that's true," Grant said.

       "Okay, while you two love birds keep flirting in your weird way, Jujube and I are going to start packing up the things we'll need to go search the city hall," Noah said.

       "Don't call me Jujube," Julian said.

       "I can do what I want, Jujube."

       Julian's reply was to punch his twin brother in the arm.

       Grant and I helped Noah and Julian pack one of the backpacks of supplies that could be useful to us. We had no idea exactly what we would need. Noah was the one claiming something would be useful as he placed it in the bag.

       Once it was packed up, I grabbed one of the iron crowbars and Grant grabbed the other one. "This is it," Grant said. "We are going to find a way to get out of here."

       "What makes you so sure that we'll actually find the reason at the city hall?" Noah asked.

       "Well, if you're so doubtful then why are you coming?" Grant asked.

       "Excitement," Noah said. "Adrenaline. Adventure. Whacking zombies over the head with an iron crowbar."

       "Too bad for the last one," Grant said. "Ollie and I are the ones with the crowbar."

       "Come on, that's not fair," Noah said. "He was injured."

       "And now I'm not," I said. "I was actually running away from the creatures when I got attacked. Didn't you run towards them?"

       "Yes, because I'm not a wimp," Noah said. "Let me have one of the crowbars."

       "Not happening," Grant said. "If we want any chance of surviving, Ollie and I are the ones with the crowbars."

       Noah just scowled, crossing his arms over his chest.

       "So..." Julian said. "Are we ready to go?"

       "I still don't think it's a good idea that you four are the ones going," Shaw said.

       "We don't really have any other choice," Dan spoke up. "The rest of us have kids, and Gerard is too big of a wimp to go out there."

       Gerard shrugged. "What's right is right."

       "Besides," Dan continued, "we really need to find our way back home before things get worse here. It's them or nobody."

       "That's easy for you to say," Shaw said. "Your brother isn't the one going out there."

       "Awe, he cares about us, Jujube," Noah said.

       "I was talking about Ollie," Shaw said.

       "Well, then," Noah said. "We are no longer brother-in-laws."

       "I promise we'll be fine," I assured Shaw. "I know I was already injured but I was caught off guard by seeing the creature for the first time and I didn't have any weapons with me. Now I know to expect them and I have this beautiful crowbar."

       Shaw pulled me into a hug. "You be safe out there because I swear, if you die, I'm going to kill you."

       "Uh, I'll already be dead so you can't kill me," I pointed out.

       "Yeah, whatever."

       "You all know what to do if you figure something out, right?" Josh asked. "Come back here as soon as you can."

       "Do we get a hug from our brothers or is Shaw and Ollie going to be the only brotherly farewell?" Noah asked. "Because we can die out there and you'll never see us again."

       "Oh, nice job reassuring everyone," Julian said.

       Josh rolled his eyes before pulling the twin brothers into a hug. "I don't have any doubt in the two of you," he said. "You're intelligent human beings. And you're annoying as hell so I wouldn't be surprised if eventually, the creatures are the ones doing the running away."

       "Awe, that's so nice of you!" Noah said.

       Holden was next to hug Julian and Noah, telling them to try not and get on each other's nerves and to not run towards the creatures. The last part was obviously directed towards Noah.

       In the meantime, Grant was saying goodbye to Wilbur, promising his little brother that he would be back as soon as he could and we would be back to our normal lives in no time.

       I hoped that was true.

       Once the goodbyes were said, the four of us walked out of the room and let the door close behind us. "Why did that feel like it was our final goodbyes?" Julian asked as we started walking to the front doors of the hospital. "Or that we were going on a very long journey that will take weeks to return?"

       "Probably because we're going to actually die out there," Grant said.

       "I hope not," Noah said. "I won't have anyone to haunt. I was looking forward to haunting ghost Cassidy for all eternity if I were to die here, but now I can't because she's gone. Ooh, maybe I could haunt Joel."

       "Joel isn't even in this parallel universe," Julian said.

       "Then I'll find a way to get back to the regular universe so I can haunt my ex for all eternity."

       "Of course you would."

       Once we got out of the hospital and started heading to the city hall, we kept an eye out for not only those creatures but for the possibility of other supernatural beings. We already had one run in with a ghost and I really didn't want another one.

       Hopefully, nobody here did something that would upset a ghost and make them want to harm them.

       "So where do we check first?" Julian asked when we got to the city hall.

       "How about the roof?" Grant asked.

       "Why?" Noah asked.

       "There was a huge thunderstorm before we were transported here," Grant said. "Our answer could very well be on the roof, one of the most vulnerable places in a thunderstorm."

       "Fair enough," Noah said.

       That was where we headed, not running into a single creature. As relieving as that was, I was also a bit worried. Surely the amount of creatures couldn't have gone down just like that. I mean, yeah, sure they were being killed but it still seemed unlikely there wasn't much now.

       Apparently, the creatures had only found a hideout just like we did.

       And their hideout was the exact same place we weren't.

       About a dozen of them were on the roof when I opened the door for us to get there. As soon as I did, they all looked in our direction.

       It was time to get some revenge after I was extremely hurt by one of the creatures.

       I gripped the crowbar in my hand as tightly as I could as they started rushing towards me. I met them halfway, hitting each of them as hard as I could. It wasn't long before they had all fallen to the ground, dead.

       "Damn," Grant said. "I have the world's hottest boyfriend."

       "I agree," Noah said.

       Grant immediately glared at Noah. "I have the other crowbar and I'm not afraid to use it."

       Noah held up his hands in defense. "Okay, sorry. But now I see why you wanted Ollie to have a crowbar. And that really was hot." Grant punched Noah's shoulder as hard as he could. "Geez, you don't have to bruise up my arm."

       "Then don't hit on my boyfriend," Grant said.

       "I wasn't," Noah said. "I was just agreeing that the way he took out a dozen creatures by himself was pretty hot. Anyway, before you kill me, we should look around. I'll go on the opposite side of the roof away from you."

       "You don't have to," Julian said, going over to an electrical circuit. "I think I found something."

       "A circuit?" Noah asked.

       "Yeah, it's completely fried," Julian said. "Almost like a storm is the one that fried it but it couldn't have. It was built in a way that was completely safe from storms. We've had worse storms than the one two nights ago."

       "You think it had something to do with us being here?" Grant asked.

       "Possibly," Julian said. "I think I can repair it. And even if it doesn't have to do with us being here, at least they'll be electricity in the city hall. Maybe then we can find some phones and other things to use."

       "Why would the circuit have anything to do with us being transported here?" I asked.

       "Scientific stuff," Noah said. "Blah blah blah. It doesn't really matter as long as we try getting back. I could help Julian fix it so just in case, you two should keep an eye out just in case any of those creatures come back."

       As the twins got to work on repairing the circuit box, Grant and I kept a look out for any creatures or anything else that would hinder their work.

       And it didn't take long for something to show up.

       "Guys?" Grant asked. "What's that?"

       Julian, Noah, and I looked over to see what Grant was looking at. It wasn't even a being of some sort. Thick, dark grey clouds were forming in the sky above us, and the clouds were darker than I had ever seen them before.

       A sudden flash of a lightning bolt suddenly struck a spot on the roof, not too far from where we were standing. One of the creatures spawned in the exact spot the lightning bolt hit.

       Only this creature? It was a lot bigger than the normal ones we saw.

       "What is this? Some type of video game?" Noah asked. "Is this the final boss? Have we been trapped in a video game this whole time?"

       "I seriously doubt it," Grant said.

       "You doubt it, but we have no idea why we're in this parallel universe of Spruceworth," Noah said. "It's a possibility. What are you waiting for? You two are the ones with crowbars and we're fixing this. Go kill it."

       "Surely it won't be too hard to kill," Grant said. "I've killed the other creatures with just a stick. A few hits with the crowbar should do, right?"

       Wrong.

       Well, it could be right but there was no way of us knowing. Grant and I tried attacking it but it was a lot quicker and swung its arm forcefully, knocking the both of us to the ground. 

       It might be easy to kill if we were able to hit it, but it was going to be difficult to actually hit.

       Since we couldn't run up and hit it, Grant thought we could try throwing the crowbar at the creature.

       It didn't work.

       The creature immediately knocked it away and it fell off the roof.

       "Grant!" I said.

       "What?" Grant asked. "I don't see how else we can hit it. Noah, Julian, do we have anything we can use in the bag?"

       "I would suggest spray paint to spray in its eyes but it doesn't have a face," Noah said.

       "Why do you have spray paint?" Grant asked.

       "Just in case we ran into a demon and I had draw a devil's trap," Noah said. 

       "I'm confused," Grant said.

       "It's a Supernatural thing," I said. "Remind me to make you watch the show with me when we get back."

       "Noted," Grant said. "So how do we kill this thing?"

       "I have no idea," I said.

       Noah took the spray paint can out of the backpack and called Grant's name before tossing it to him. "What's this for?" Grant asked.

       "The demon has to see somehow," Noah said. "Even if it looks like it doesn't have a face, it really does. How else could it see?"

       "What if they don't see and they just sense us?" Julian asked.

       Grant looked at me. "Can they see?"

       "How would I know?" I asked.

       "Uh, because you turned into one," Grant said.

       "Which I don't even remember doing," I said.

       "Then try," Grant said.

       I wanted to try but it was a bit hard trying to dodge the creature's attacks. I didn't even want to try hitting it yet because we couldn't afford to lose another crowbar. It was the last weapon we had.

       "Ollie," Grant said.

       "I'm trying," I said. "I really can't remember."

       "You have to. It's our only chance to know."

       It took all I had to go through my brain to try remembering if I could see while I was the creature. And finally, I got my answer.

       "Yes," I said. "I was able to. Noah's right. It may not look like it has a face but it does."

       "Perfect," Grant said, popping the lid off of the spray paint can before shaking it, then spraying it where he thought the creature's face would be. The creature screeched loudly, looking around frantically.

       Grant looked at me and I, thinking the exact same thing as him, nodded before we went to the creature and shoved him off the edge of the roof. I didn't look but I did hear a thud. Grant, on the other hand, looked over the edge. "Ha! Sucker! It landed right on my crowbar! Awe, now I can't get my crowbar back."

       "Hopefully, we won't need it," Julian said. "The circuit's fixed."

       "That fast?" Grant asked.

       "We're a family of geniuses," Julian said. "So yes, that fast."

       He closed the lid of the circuit box and right as he did, a boom of thunder filled the air before rain started lightly pouring down and wind began to blow.

       "A storm," Grant said. "One's starting up."

       "That's how we got here," Noah said. "And that's how we're getting back."

       "Come on, let's get back to the hospital," Julian said. "We need safety now."

       We left the roof and headed down the stairs of the city hall. Right as we walked outside, a bunch more creatures showed up there, gathering around the fallen creature. 

       "Nice going, Grant and Ollie," Noah said. "You killed their leader. They're going to be mad."

       Once he said that, all of the creatures turned their head sharply towards us. I already faced a lot of them but now that rain was pouring down, they seemed a lot more threatening.

       That didn't stop me from swinging the crowbar whenever one of them tried attacking me. However, more and more kept showing up so the best thing to do was run.

       "Are you sure it's smart leading them to the hospital where everyone else is?" Julian asked. "Where the kids are?"

       "Shaw and Horatio are there," Noah pointed out. "They just as good at killing the creatures as Ollie and Grant are. And they should have more weapons there since someone lost the crowbar."

       Grant only glared at Noah as we kept running to the hospital. We got there and I let them get ahead of me so they can get to the room first and get someone to unblock the door.

       Noah got there first and pounded on the door. "We've got a bunch more creatures here and only one crowbar! Help please!"

       The door opened after whatever was blocked it was moved out of the way and Shaw was the first one out, holding onto a socket wrench. Horatio was next, holding onto an identical item that Shaw had.

       It didn't take long for us to kill all the creatures that had chased us.

       "I said it once and I'll say it again," Grant said. "I have the world's hottest boyfriend."

       "Why are you all soaked?" Shaw asked.

       "It started raining and a storm is coming," Julian said. "And it's probably how we're getting home. Long story. We just have to wait out the storm and see what happens."

_______________

i love noah so much. he's not afraid to say what's on his mind even if it gets him in trouble, as seen a few chapters ago when he was mouthing off ghost cassidy lmao.

i need to keep the author's note short since this chapter was longer than i expected and it's 2:45 am and i have school lol. (at 1pm so i'm all good for a bit).